The Supreme Court yesterday overturned a Taiwan High Court ruling last year that found the defendants in the “Hsichih Trio” case not guilty.
Saying there were “contradictory accounts” and issues that needed further investigation, the Supreme Court returned the case to the Taiwan High Court for retrial.
The latest ruling marked another turn in the series of legal twists that has seen the case drag on for more than two decades.
The “Hsichih Trio” are Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), Liu Bin-lang (劉秉郎) and Chuang Lin-hsun (莊林勳), who, along with Wang Wen-hsiao (王文孝), were suspected of robbing and murdering Wu Min-han (吳銘漢) and his wife, Yeh Ying-lan (葉盈蘭), in the Taipei suburb” of Sijhih (汐止), also known as Hsichih, on March 24, 1991. The couple were found dead in their apartment. They had been stabbed 79 times.
Wang, an army conscript, was sentenced and executed under military law in January 1992.
Su, Liu and Chuang were incarcerated in 1991 at the age of 19 and remained in jail until 2003, eight of those years spent on death row.
In May 2000, then-state public prosecutor-general Chen Han (陳涵) made three extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court for a retrial. In January 2003, the High Court acquitted the trio. Prosecutors filed another appeal with the Supreme Court, which ordered yet another retrial. The High Court again sentenced the three to death in June 2007.
In 2009, the trio’s panel of lawyers presented a report by forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺), which said that a single killer could have carried out the double murder and rape.
Referring to new information given in the forensic report by Lee, the high court in November last year said Wang had most likely acted alone in committing the two murders. The court reversed the death sentences given to the three by the high court in June 2007 on charges of robbery and premeditated murder.
Expressing regret over the latest ruling, Su Yiu-chen (蘇友辰), the trio’s defense lawyer, asserted his clients’ innocence.
We will never see the end of this case if the court remains overly fastidious, he added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS